National Novel Writing Month: You Can Do It!
November is just around the corner. Y’know what that means? National Novel Writing Month! (NaNoWriMo for short.)
NaNoWriMo challenges you to write throughout November, piecing together a narrative until, voila! You’ve got a 175-page, 50,000-word novel on your hands.
That may sound daunting, but it’s totally doable! In fact, more than 15,000 people did it last year.
I lasted about two days when I gave it a go during my senior year in college. But you? You’ve got gumption, and an awesome blog here on WordPress.
If you want to go for it, just follow this simple plan:
- Every day, take a minute to sit down and write a story. You don’t need to have it all planned out, just write.
- Post each delicious literary morsel to your blog and tag it with “nanowrimo08.”
- When you’re hitting a wall, use that tag to check out what others are doing and gain inspiration.
- Go to NaNoWriMo by midnight on Nov. 30 to have your novel verified.
- Print business cards with your new title: Great American (or Indonesian or Argentinian or…) Novelist.
For some extra motivation, you could read an excellent novel while you write one! Some Automattic faves…
Jane: Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay, Maus by Art Spiegelman.
Michael: Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille, Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre, The Plague by Albert Camus, Crime and Punishment and The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.
Marianne: Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, Tales of the City series by Armistead Maupin, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.
Mark: The Stand (Uncut) by Stephen King.
Nick: Anything by James Patterson.
UPDATE 11/04: A number of you have asked about international participation and writing in other languages. You’re free and welcome to participate, regardless of language or location. Check out the NaNoWriMo FAQ for details.
- October 31, 2008
- Community
WordPress.com News 
Oh my god – I have 6 blogs. Do I have to write 300,000 words? 😉
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I guess this is a good idea.
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Mm… cool idea, but I’m not sure I’m up for it.
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Thanks for the encouragement, Heather!
I just wrote 10,000 words this week in 10 or so posts on the Wine Bloggers Conference, so I am all warmed up and ready to go!
PS And what will it take to get you to do it this year…C’mon, join us!
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Sounds exciting – and really something to think about 🙂
But na… meaning national, could mean only in America?!?
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@Lilja: It’s an international event, despite the name. Check out the official answer in the NaNoWriMo FAQ.
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a friend of mine’s been asking me to write one for a long time but i never really knew where to begin. this seems good enough!! im in 😀
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That is awesome!
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I’m on it! My first words will be written tonight at midnight. If anyone else is participating and needs someone to guilt them into honestly writing the whole 50,000 word minimum, send me a message! Happy writing, wordpress!
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Right I’ll do it too I’m in
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Sounds fun… I need to make this national work on my other novel month. 🙂
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I’ll try it, but I write like crap.
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it’s only in english?
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@akurion: It does not have to be in English, no.
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While it’s wonderful to support writing, real novelists know that every month is novel writing month, because real writers never stop. A badge and a business card do not a great American novelist make, and neither does spewing 50,000 words in 30 days, especially if said words are crap.
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I did Nanowrimo last year for the first time. It was really fun to see what I’d write each day. This year I have 15 middle school students doing it with me. They have all committed to different numbers of words. Their excitement is contagious! I recommend it. It’s a lot of fun.
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I’m already in; thanks for the tag info. Started a new blog to track my prep, and another one to do the actual writing.
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I’ve been ready to do this for a while. In fact, I’ve been counting down to NaNo all week with tips for what I’ve used to “win” the three years I’ve done it.
Last year I knocked out the 50,000 in 9 days. I’m hoping to beat that this year.
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50,000 words is frightening! Good luck to those who do it though!
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sounds interesting..
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We could try NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) too!
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I think it’s so cool that WordPress posted about this! I did it last year too, and I can’t for morning!
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And, hell yeah. That’s a wonderful thing. Well … I love WordPress! Go on! 🙂
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Okay, please delete my first comment, I’ve got the answer at the nanowrimo-page. But I’ve another question: Can I write a novel in English and in German (I’ve a German and an English blog … and yeah … I love writing) …
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Sounds juicy, I’ll give it a whirl ~
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Heather,
Very interesting.
However, without a decent plot, NaNoRiMo is much like walking with your eyes closed. You’ll get somewhere, but with some bruises and not where you intended.
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righteo, im starting! it’s the 1st of november with me!! Does the time difference matter? 😛
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Ever since I heard about it a couple of years ago, I’ve wanted to try it. But I don’t want to disappoint myself. I already have too many things to do – like finish my MBA.
Good luck to those of you who try it.
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250 words per page,
2 pages 500
20 pages 5000
200 pages 50000
but it says 175 pages, so that must mean 200/175 x250 words per page = 286 words per page. And I’ve just written 35 words so I am 0.07% of my way to the far horizon. This is moving along just fine. In fact my only worry is that I will keep on working out how far along I am, and divert myself from the task in hand.
Mmmn. better think of a plot and a name for this novel. How about the Palin Years? A Gothic horror story for our times.
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Amazing! This tool will change yourself (and myself 🙂 Worth taking it. At the end you will only get better at creativity, writing, self-organization, scheduling… You may continue list 🙂
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I’m up to the challenge, Heather! I’m game, please count me in… I’m all out for it. I’ve been toying with the ‘day-dream’ of being a novelist for past decades of my life, anyways. So never too late to start today, right?
NaNoWriMo November 2008 — here goes my debut in aspiring to become the FIRST-EVER and ONLY amateur writer from Brunei Darussalam to win a Booker or Pulitzer Prize award with my novel entitled, “The Sword of Heritage” *Hehehehe* 😉 🙂
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I made it last year despite hearing about it for the first time on November 3rd. And I hope to do it again this year. Come on, everyone, get crackin’! You’re writers, do what you do best!
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Boo to Will Entrekin who doesn’t understand the process that NaNoWriMo is encouraging. The emphasis is on having a fun time writing a crappy first draft, generating a chunk of raw material that people can develop and polish over the following months and years. No-one’s expecting to come up with The Brothers Karamazov by the end of Nov. Sheesh.
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Good, challenging and awesome. What do I get in return?
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@lidissingkung: Sa-tis-fac-tion 🙂
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I’d like to do this. Though could I start on Dec 1st rather? As in will do the 50K words in the month of Dec?
Just finished post a day for October and am exhausted.
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that’s great..^_^
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you know what?
i’m gonna do it
yeah, think I will
x
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Oh no! Is it that time again already?!
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Heather
I have two novels in the can, the completion of desire is sa-tis-fac-tion. Is there completion in this challenge?
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Ummm…this is very tempting…but it would mean to me like scribbling on a bus ride, on my kitchen sink, on the pedestrian crossing…umm…while on the toilet bowl (?)…well…it’s worth giving a shot, though…thanks 🙂
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Heather, I’ve got one question. You need to get your novel verified at the end of the process but I’m not sure how you would do that if you had multiple posts. What would I do to dump all that text from my blog into a text file and upload to them when it’s spread across potentially hundreds of posts?
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@David Ker: Good question! My suggestion would be to keep your novel running in a text document, copy and pasting as you go — either from the document to your blog or vise versa, depending on how you’re comfortable working. Then you won’t have to worry about attempting to join it all up at the end.
If you’re copying your work in from Word, be sure to read this page of the FAQ.
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amazing and awesome ..
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I’m up to the challenge too! Wooho… all up and flaring! hopefully I’ll manage to complete a novel this year. 😀
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Awesome.
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I am participating this year (again) but in a totally unprepared way. I am not sure how I’m going to go about it. Wing it, I guess? 🙂 Good luck to all NaNoWrimo-ers!
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Hi, Heather. Let’s do it now. 🙂
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I was able to do it last year and hoping to do so again this year! Already cranked out nearly 1400 words. But now my brain is shutting down and demanding sleep…
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I love NanoWriMo. This is my third year participating. 🙂
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hahah…175 pages…
So hot for me…
It s an amazing idea…
But i think..i cant realize it now..coz my tasks makes me so bad…
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really gud to hear, challenging to do and when i try to start it today it seems impossible for me at least. But after all i will try to write few page everyday….
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Definitely gonna be a part of this 😀 thanx for the info Heather!!
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Thanks for the extra motivation to write!
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this sounds like fun.. count me in.. and yeah i am gonna try and get a few friends to try it as well..
@everyone here: can we all name our novels and leave it here with a link so that everyone in the contest can read it..
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I’ll write something, but not today.
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I’ve known about it for five years, but this is the first year I’ll be trying out. My stomach is the size of a peanut.
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ok…its souds interesting…
just prpare about 5000 wrds to say and write,right!?..
haha….come on..be a truth novel writer…..
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I would even love to do it, thanks it’s really inspiring coz at this time I’m facing a very hard life, and I would like to share it..
so are you the organizer of it heather?
do i need to pay something??
coz i’m really pennyless…
asolutely..
perhaps this gonna help me sharing my problem..
but would it be published??
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@bangmaston: No, this event is not affiliated with WordPress (or me). We’re just rooting on all who are interesting in trying to make it happen this year. It doesn’t cost anything and, no, there is no guaranteed publication at the end. Please see the official National Novel Writing Month website for details.
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I retain copyright and i can still sell Penguin the right of first publication, right? Even though it’s already been published?
I mean, there is something in this for me, right? Most ppl have one good novel in them; does mine get squandered in some hokey meme?
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Could we have a forum or a corner somewhere so that people who are participating can gather for support and encouragement? I think one of the hot topics is not so much about the writing process itself, but about how to get a blog-into-book published.
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@Abra Bennett: Sure! I just created a new topic in our Off Topic forum.
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David, I had started the morning sulking bec I keep getting these 2a.m. mails from work even tho am on Diwali vacn, you made me laugh out loud…thanks 🙂
Heather, thanks am new here and appreciate this, in fact I wish I could get the whole school to get involved with this (is there some way I can?).
I don’t care if folks write crap as long as they write, write, write till they get good at it and are enjoying themselves. Er, Will Entrekin up there probably is a real writer…but quite a lot of people here are amateurs to writing and this strange new medium and this is a good way to encourage people to have a go at it 🙂
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Cool Idea… I think I’ll do it!
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thanks for the info. this is the first time I hear about this project. interesting!
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It’ll take time.. Students hardly have it. But its worth trying.
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YES! Without a job these past few months I’ve felt the need of external pressure to get some work done. I’ll do it!
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This WP initiative can be named NaBloWriMo! National Blog Writing Month
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And if it’s worth paying for… a published book!
Has anyone ever looked into how many books actually came to print from NaNoWriMo? Would be interesting to find out.
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I’m definitely doing it. I’ve done it two years previously, and it’s a great break from my usual fiction to do something different.
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I already have a completed book – “OUT WEST” – sitting on my blog, all twenty-three chapters of it! But it’s not a novel. It’s a sort of travelogue cum final meeting-up with a long-lost American relative, after half a century…
I wrote the book for my son, but he insisted it went on The Web…
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wow,,sounds great. But..writing in english eh? im an indonesian speaker smhow 😦
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great challenge ;-). thanks
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I need to do this. I was just reading a biography on Doug Adams (my favorite author of all times) and found out that he was such a procrastinator, the only way he would finish a novel was when his publisher would have him locked in a hotel for weeks at a time with a supervisor. He would not be allowed to play his guitars, and would only be let out for brief periods to do jogging. I was just thinking, wouldn’t it be great if I could get one of my friends to lock me in a hotel until I finish my novel… (and foot the bill too– wouldn’t that be nice!!!).
This is a great idea, and I’m totally going to do it. But maybe in another blog… a private one. 😉
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@mariannebaker: Yes! The word count for each post displays beneath the Save and Publish buttons to the right of the post editor.
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Oh… And is there a wordcount option on wordpress?
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Eight years ago I set out to write a book. Others have encouraged me to tell my story. I’ve let time, lack of confidence and not knowing where or how to start keep me from accomplishing my goal and dreams.
This is a great challenge and a good time to start. Thanks for the challenge; I begin today.
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Never knew this before.. *thinking* Try? No? Later? Maybe? Mm…
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I am going to try and do this. Today is the first day for me on blog, which I am trying to use . It seems as if 1st November is very significant for decision making, changes and chances for me. I have talked about writing for the last 6 months and have done nothing except to look a writers references – I need this. All of this is new to me but I am up for the challenge.
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It looks like WordPress is just looking for more activity on its site rather than promoting writing skills… Why can’t some sort of a prize be offered, rather than free ‘Sa-tis-fac-tion’? Not necessarily money, may be a paid holiday or help to publish and promote? 🙂
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National Novel Writing Month: You Can Do It?
no.
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hmmm, i will have to get my thinking cap on!!!!
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I’m doing it for the second year. I don’t think I’m going to use this blog to track my progress – I created it for the NaBloPoMo challenge, in fact (http://nablopomo.com) – but I’m doing it anyway. Last year I had a good idea but ran out of steam halfway. This year I have only the foggiest plot idea, so I should do fine! 😉
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uh-oh i am slow typer
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So cool to see NaNoWriMo front and center here at WordPress. You people rock! I’m in and happily just logged my first 2511 words. Go, WriMos, Go!
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Awesome! Do you know if there’s a way to get wordpress to spew out the posts in chronological form… so we can basically start a blog for our NaNovel?
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You are tossing a wonderful idea. All the best!
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Hmm, sounds fun… but I’m busy, maybe next year! Or the year after… or… after that…
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Perhaps I’ll do it. Start with in anyway. Keeping up till the end ? Don’t know.
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it’s only in english?
I think this is a good idea,
may be for spanish speakers too…
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I’m willing to try. We’ll see how this goes.
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